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Speaker 1: Now, tourism operators in Kackadoo have raised concerns that a

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Speaker 1: number of popular tourist spots are still off limits as

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Speaker 1: crocodile surveys have not yet been complete. It's creating uncertainty

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Speaker 1: for travel agents and is forcing operators to cancel bookings,

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Speaker 1: leaving tourists disappointed. Now, one of those operators joins me

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Speaker 1: on the line. Now, his name is Chizzo and he's

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Speaker 1: from Never Never Safari Tours. Good morning, Chizzo, Good morning,

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Speaker 1: how are you good mate? Thanks so much for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning. What parts of Kackadoo remain closed?

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Speaker 2: Will starting off with Boo Loom that hasn't been open

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Speaker 2: for about over four years now and Jimdin and mcgook,

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Speaker 2: which is our major day tour packages that we do. Now,

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Speaker 2: what does that?

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Speaker 1: Is it all due to these crocodile surveys not yet

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Speaker 1: being complete?

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Speaker 2: I think I feel it's like a lack of staff,

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Speaker 2: not being able to get in there early enough. You know,

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Speaker 2: we haven't had a good rain out here for over

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Speaker 2: ten weeks. And get in there and in April, say

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Speaker 2: and as long as the road's accessible after the web,

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Speaker 2: get in there and get these trucks out, get the

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Speaker 2: roads done and you know, clean up the campground. So

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Speaker 2: tourism's here, but they've just got nowhere to go. And

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Speaker 2: so we've had cancelations and we've tried to rebook to

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Speaker 2: do something else, but there's nothing else open. Yeah. I

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Speaker 2: feel that they just need a good boot and really

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Speaker 2: try and push the season to be a bit longer

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Speaker 2: than you know, three or four months of the year.

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Speaker 2: We pay permits for the whole twelve months.

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Speaker 1: So well, mate, especially if you're trying, you know, you're

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Speaker 1: trying to run a business, it's bloody hard to run

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Speaker 1: that business if you're only able to do it over

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Speaker 1: a short period of time each year exactly.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And when they forecast things to open and

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Speaker 2: then it changes for thirty days later, we've already got

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Speaker 2: bookings ready to go, and then we've got to let

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Speaker 2: the customer know that we can't go to that spot.

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Speaker 2: We can go to another alternative location. But most of

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Speaker 2: the time they've already done that. That is tough, very

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Speaker 2: very cranky people out there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. So then what like what impact is that having

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Speaker 1: for you? I mean, it seems pretty obvious that it

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Speaker 1: means that there's cancelations, but like, how often is that

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Speaker 1: happening and what impact is it having?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's year after year, it just goes on and on.

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Speaker 2: You know that they need to really get new staff

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Speaker 2: and we'll not new stuff, but more staff to help

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Speaker 2: and open these places up. It's a beautiful National park,

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Speaker 2: World Heritage listed, It's an awesome place like all of home.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's great, can you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Mate? It seems like this seems like a really

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Speaker 1: difficult situation. And I would imagine that you're not the

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Speaker 1: only operator out there at the moment that's in this situation.

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Speaker 1: I'm not expecting you to talk on anybody else's behalf,

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Speaker 1: But mate, how many, like how many cancelations would you

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Speaker 1: say that this is potentially meant for you?

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Speaker 2: We're up to eighteen and just about ten minutes ago,

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Speaker 2: another lady said, I was thinking going to be open

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Speaker 2: on a twenty second of June. I said no, so

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Speaker 2: she's just canceled. So nineteen Now.

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Speaker 1: Over what period of time is that over since the

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Speaker 1: beginning of the dry.

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Speaker 2: Yes, pretty well, from when we started our bookings. We

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Speaker 2: go from April to September with our bookings. But when

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Speaker 2: we see it on our tak of the access report

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Speaker 2: that we get email each day. See it's open, we

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Speaker 2: start the bookings, So does tour operators. Yeah, and so

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Speaker 2: do the guest, the tourists that come here. So we

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Speaker 2: all go, all right, it's going to open early. Let's go,

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Speaker 2: you know, let's show this beautiful place off. But we can't.

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Speaker 1: Well, and this is the thing. Everybody wants to show

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory in all its magnificence, but it's pretty

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Speaker 1: hard if you're in a situation there where you're not

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Speaker 1: actually able to do that. You know, when you talk

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Speaker 1: about those nineteen cancelations, I would imagine that that has

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Speaker 1: had quite an enormous financial blow to business. Also.

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Speaker 2: Yeah that's right. Yeah. You know, look, if they do

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Speaker 2: fine crops in that that is a pretty good reason

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Speaker 2: not to open it. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, and that's the thing it is all about, you know,

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Speaker 1: it is about making sure that that people are safe.

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Speaker 1: It's about maintaining that safety. But like you've pointed out,

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Speaker 1: if there is if you've got the staff that are

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Speaker 1: able to actually do those surveys and they're complete, then

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Speaker 1: you know it would be business as usual.

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Speaker 2: Yeah that's right, Yeah, mate.

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Speaker 1: Can you tell me. I'm assuming that you've spoken to

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Speaker 1: Parts Australia about why the crocodile surveys haven't been completed

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Speaker 1: ahead of the start of the tourist season and what

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Speaker 1: are they sort of telling you When do they expect

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Speaker 1: that it's going to be done.

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Speaker 2: Look, they're saying that this Saturday, the seventeenth, mcgook will

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Speaker 2: be open, but we're still looking at early July for

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Speaker 2: Jim Gym, which is our main one. You know, I

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Speaker 2: went there seventy four times last year and it's amazing spot.

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Speaker 2: You can never get thick of it. But when they

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Speaker 2: do open it, you know, like they opened it at

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Speaker 2: the twenty seventh of June last year, which was going

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Speaker 2: to be early June, it wasn't even a waterfall. So

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Speaker 2: we've pretty well had to change our wording on our

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Speaker 2: site Jim Jim Falls Tour to Jim Jim Gorge Tour

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Speaker 2: because yeah, there's not much water over overflowing the falls,

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Speaker 2: which it does happen, you know, in on our left

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Speaker 2: feeds even if tour uproads just get in there and

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Speaker 2: show it as it's boiling. No, we've all got our

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Speaker 2: yeah that our first day and everything else. So but again,

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Speaker 2: other roads going to be done by then.

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Speaker 1: You know, Chiezo, it sounds like it's a difficult situation.

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Speaker 1: And I would suspect after you've operated out there for

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Speaker 1: quite a long period of time that you know that

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Speaker 1: you get used to the ebbs and flows that you've

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Speaker 1: got to deal with. But this would be making business hard.

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Speaker 1: It would be making it hard for you to book

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Speaker 1: tourists in when you don't know whether you're going to

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Speaker 1: be able to take them to specific spots exactly. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: what are the tourists saying to you then?

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Speaker 2: As well?

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Speaker 1: You know in turn, obviously I've had a number of cancelations,

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Speaker 1: but what are people saying to you?

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Speaker 2: Why did we actually put the booking onto our website

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Speaker 2: when it's closed? We go, well, you know, it was

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Speaker 2: forecast to open at a certain time, and then it

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Speaker 2: gets moved and we just can't do it. So they're

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Speaker 2: very disappointed, you know, they come here, you know, a

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Speaker 2: costing thousands to get here, and then you've accommodation and

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Speaker 2: then just very very disappointed that there's nowhere to go.

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Speaker 1: Jizo. What needs to happen to try to fix this situation?

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Speaker 2: I think more stuff. I think even us two guides.

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Speaker 2: We'd even get in there and help us a volunteer

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Speaker 2: to help get things done. More staff. I feel around

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Speaker 2: the April sort of time, so and then you know,

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Speaker 2: may you know, they can probably start to open up

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Speaker 2: these waterfalls as long as you know, roads don't, campgrounds

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Speaker 2: are ready, and the crops are out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, you know, it's the jewel in our crown.

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Speaker 1: Kakado is literally the jewel in the Northern Territories crown,

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Speaker 1: well one of them. I know, we've got plenty of

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Speaker 1: your beautiful locations, but we've got to make sure that

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Speaker 1: we are getting this right because we want to bring

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Speaker 1: in plenty of tourists into the Northern Territory. We want

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Speaker 1: them getting out to places like Kakadoo and you know,

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Speaker 1: booking with wonderful businesses like yours.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, yeah. The lady was just saying too,

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Speaker 2: she was going to go down Buffalo Butterfly Gorge there,

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Speaker 2: but the road's being graded, but they're still saying that's

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Speaker 2: closed as well. One guy in Litchfield the party is

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Speaker 2: still closed. It's very hard. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, Cheerzo, mate, I really appreciate you having a

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Speaker 1: chat with us this morning and making us more aware

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Speaker 1: of the situation. I dare say that after speaking to you,

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Speaker 1: we're going to have people calling through letting us know

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Speaker 1: about their experiences, and probably other businesses getting in contact.

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Speaker 1: So I really appreciate you speaking to us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no worries, Thank you,